JulianB1
Well-Known Member
So I'm going to start this thread with a rant to explain my motivation for posting it. Here's a ******** website that isn't an actual brewery site, but rather a KickStarter page for some guys who want to open a brewery and want other people to give them the money for it:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/31773828/the-barking-duck-brewing-co
Now, I'm not necessarily against using a KickStarter to help fund a brewery project (such as Wakefield) or an expansion for an existing brewery. But this entire thing comes off so unprofessionally, it's basically "our friends like our beer, so help us open a brewery!". Reading the description, there is nothing in there giving any substance about the business plan, their vision for the beer (other than "a fresh new approach to craft brewing", which is about the most meaningless statement I can think of), just a bunch of "yeah man craft beer rocks, give us money so we can turn our hobby into our dream job!" I mean, these guys apparently haven't even bought equipment yet and want to be open by the end of 2013? Give me a break.
Okay, rant over on that. One thing that page did do for me is cause me to pause and think about the current inadequacy of the brewery website for the brewery I'm unofficially involved with, Seminar Brewing (www.seminarbrewing.com). Now, my friends who are opening this brewery couldn't be more dissimilar from the guys linked to above if they tried: they've been planning it for 3 years, their business plan is extensive, they've secured capital funding through a small business loan while putting up a ton of their own assets as collateral, and despite being relatively far along in the planning process they aren't going to open for several more months because they want to make sure the beer is completely dialed in before they start selling it. But you wouldn't know a lot of that looking at the "About Us" part of their website, it's the same kind of vacuity about "this is how we got into craft beer, this is how we started homebrewing, etc."
So TL;DR: help me help them improve their website (even if it is just in a holding pattern at the moment; most of the action is on Facebook and Twitter) by offering advice on what content you want on a brewery's website, especially one that's relatively new rather than well-established. Think about what would cause you to want to give the brewery a chance versus "pffft, these guys don't sound professional or serious, Ill pass", if say, you were passing through the area and were looking up places to check out ahead of time.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/31773828/the-barking-duck-brewing-co
Now, I'm not necessarily against using a KickStarter to help fund a brewery project (such as Wakefield) or an expansion for an existing brewery. But this entire thing comes off so unprofessionally, it's basically "our friends like our beer, so help us open a brewery!". Reading the description, there is nothing in there giving any substance about the business plan, their vision for the beer (other than "a fresh new approach to craft brewing", which is about the most meaningless statement I can think of), just a bunch of "yeah man craft beer rocks, give us money so we can turn our hobby into our dream job!" I mean, these guys apparently haven't even bought equipment yet and want to be open by the end of 2013? Give me a break.
Okay, rant over on that. One thing that page did do for me is cause me to pause and think about the current inadequacy of the brewery website for the brewery I'm unofficially involved with, Seminar Brewing (www.seminarbrewing.com). Now, my friends who are opening this brewery couldn't be more dissimilar from the guys linked to above if they tried: they've been planning it for 3 years, their business plan is extensive, they've secured capital funding through a small business loan while putting up a ton of their own assets as collateral, and despite being relatively far along in the planning process they aren't going to open for several more months because they want to make sure the beer is completely dialed in before they start selling it. But you wouldn't know a lot of that looking at the "About Us" part of their website, it's the same kind of vacuity about "this is how we got into craft beer, this is how we started homebrewing, etc."
So TL;DR: help me help them improve their website (even if it is just in a holding pattern at the moment; most of the action is on Facebook and Twitter) by offering advice on what content you want on a brewery's website, especially one that's relatively new rather than well-established. Think about what would cause you to want to give the brewery a chance versus "pffft, these guys don't sound professional or serious, Ill pass", if say, you were passing through the area and were looking up places to check out ahead of time.